“Waking Life” – Animation Film (Watch Free)

Watch Waking Life Animation Film (Watch Free)

Waking Life is an American live-action rotoscoped animation film, directed by Richard Linklater (same director of recent film Boyhood). The film is an interesting animation – a bit different to what you might expect, in that everything (hair, ground, cars, sky, buildings) is constantly moving.

Apparently the entire film was shot using digital video and then a team of artists using computers drew stylized lines and colors over each frame. Very creative, I say.

The film focuses on the nature of dreams and consciousness.

The title, Waking Life, refers to the philosopher George Santayana’s saying:

Sanity is a madness put to good uses; waking life is a dream controlled.

Waking Life is about a young man (not sure if he actually has a name in the film) in a persistent lucid dream-like state. Initially he is observing philosophical discussions of issues such as reality, free will, the relationship of the subject with others, and the meaning of life and later taking parts in these discussions.

The film touches on many other spiritual topics and the deeper questions about life, including existentialism, becoming conscious and lucid dreaming itself.

It’s 1.38 hours long. If you’re in the mood for a thought-provoking and creatively filmed animation film, then enjoy watching:

(Sorry, ads run for 25 seconds first and there are subtitles, guess it’s not so bad as you get to watch the full movie…)

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Also worth seeing is A Scanner Darkly, also directed by Richard Linklater and using the same animation technique as Waking Life. In this case it works even better as the animation technique, which leaves one feeling giddy, echos the subject matter of the film — drug addiction and loss of identity.

I also recommend Richard Linklater’s trilogy of films (each one filmed a decade apart): Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Sunrise, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delphey. There’s actually a brief scene in Waking Life which comprises the two characters from the trilogy. And Boyhood features Ethan Hawke too.